Posts Tagged ‘playoffs challenge’

The end of football season is near! No wait, lets be positive about this. The NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl are almost here, and our NFL Playoffs Challenge is back (last year)!

Sign up to play and receive specially marked Fantasy Throwdown challenges each week of the NFL Playoffs, including the Super Bowl, to be played against an independent Throwdown admin player.

Contestants earn points for wins, plus bonus points for margins of victory and for drafting the eventual Super Bowl MVP. Standings are tabulated after each week of the playoffs, and the overall winners are declared after the conclusion of Super Bowl XLIX.

It is $20 per entry, and we are capping the contest at only 20 entries, so don’t miss your chance to join! Read below for full rules and details.

Format and Rules

Once the playoff schedule is known after the conclusion of Week 17, each contestant receives two official Fantasy Throwdown challenges marked “PC” (Playoffs Challenge) for Wild-Card Weekend.

Contestants need to accept the challenges and finish their drafts against a representative from Fantasy Throwdown the week leading up to the Wild-Card Weekend games.

Once results are in after the last game on Sunday, points are awarded for wins, and standings are tabulated for the Playoffs Challenge.

Contestants earn 2 points for a win, plus a half point bonus if they win by 21 or more points. There is potential for an additional half point bonus awarded for drafting the eventual Super Bowl MVP.

All contestants each receive another two Fantasy Throwdown challenges for Divisional Playoffs, and two for Conference Championships. Points are awarded and standings updated each week.

All contestants each receive one Fantasy Throwdown challenge for Super Bowl. All available points are doubled for Super Bowl (4 points for a win, 1 point for a win by 21+, 1 point for drafting the Super Bowl MVP).

Final overall standings after the conclusion of the Super Bowl determine our overall contest winners. There is also a weekly prize for the best single week performance (all games played for one entry) after each round of the first three weeks of the playoffs (no weekly prize for the Super Bowl).

Entry Fee

$20 per entry

This contest is capped at a maximum of 20 entries. Contestants can purchase multiple entries to help increase their chances of winning.

Important Points

Contest Entry Deadline

Wild-Card Weekend games start Saturday January 3rd. The deadline to join the NFL Playoffs Challenge is Friday January 2nd at 12:00pm Eastern, to help ensure drafts are finished prior to opening kickoff of the first playoff game.

Incomplete Drafts

If a contestant fails to accept and sufficiently complete their draft (at least 7 picks made) prior to Friday at 6:00pm Eastern of that week’s games, then Fantasy Throwdown cannot guarantee the draft will be finished before opening kickoff of that playoff week. An incomplete draft will expire, and no points awarded to the contestant for that match.

Standings Tie-breakers

In the event contestants are tied in the standings based on points earned, the first tie-breaker is overall point differential. The second tie-breaker is point differential for the Super Bowl.

Multiple Entries

Contestants can purchase multiple entries. These will be marked PC1 (first entry), PC2, (second entry), PC3 (third), etc., etc. Contestants cannot combine PC1 results from one week with PC2 results from another week, for example. Each entry must be tracked separately.

This is our last Fantasy Throwdown event of the season, and perhaps your only chance to play fantasy football for the Super Bowl! Sign up today so you don’t miss out. Good luck!

That wasn’t the game anyone expected! Sure, I saw lots of win predictions for the Seattle Seahawks over the Denver Broncos, but man, I don’t think anyone even wanted to believe it would be such a big blowout. We’ve had so many good, closely contested Super Bowls lately, this brings me back to the Buffalo Bills vs. Dallas Cowboys days. Bad memories! Or the San Francisco 49ers vs. San Diego Chargers Super Bowl. I think that one I ended up playing pool in my university bar for the second half.

Well, as we close the books on another season, lets first get down to business and figure out who won our NFL Playoffs Challenge. Remember the Super Bowl match – there was just one challenge per player in the contest – is worth double points in the standings.

There were also points up for drafting the Super Bowl MVP throughout the NFL Playoffs Challenge, but since that wasn’t Peyton Manning or Russell Wilson or even Percy Harvin, who got drafted a lot this week and even a bunch of times in the Seahawks win over the New Orleans Saints, no one drafted the MVP.

Congratulations to LB Malcolm Smith for landing the MVP honor. Maybe I should give the MVP bonus points to everyone who drafted the Seattle Seahawks defense? Technically, I cannot do that, as that wasn’t clear in the rules previously. I’ll definitely think about adding that in the future, however, that if a defensive player wins MVP then the points go to that team defense. It sure makes sense in Seattle’s case.

Personally, I had an absolutely terrible final week of the season playing Fantasy Throwdown. “Manning” (pun intended) the Throwdown1 account for this challenge, I went 7-15. All but two of the losses, my opponent won by 21+ fantasy points for the. . . lets call it the ass-kicking, bonus.

No loss was bigger than the one handed out by Wilforkisland. He won by 93 points! Final score 136-43. He got his hands on Demaryius Thomas and Wes Welker, and took Seattle defense and Steven Hauschka early, in the 5th and 6th rounds, between me adding Percy Harvin and Golden Tate. He nabbed Doug Baldwin with his final pick, the final nail in the coffin.

Didn’t I say just last week I was shocked Wilforkisland was in last place, winless, in this contest? Figures he took it to heart and finished strong with the biggest win in the Super Bowl round. He wins the $50 weekly prize.

Now down to the big dogs who finished in the Top 5 overall for this contest. This is I guess what you would consider our first guaranteed prize pool, or GPP in daily fantasy sports lingo. Not that all of our cash games aren’t guaranteed prizes, so it is a bit confusing. Players flock to GPP though, so GPP it is! First place in this contest wins $300, 2nd place $150, 3rd place $75 and 4th and 5th place, each $40.

Drumroll please. . . and. . . our Top 5 last week all won, and won big this week. No change! Womp womp womp. Since we didn’t have any points awarded for the MVP, that couldn’t come into play. All of these guys brought their A-game to get the maximum 5 points for Super Bowl (4 for the win, 1 for winning by 21+). And those guys start with. . .

Champion rhazes_darkk! He finished with a 6-1 record in the contest and won 4 of those games by 21+. Great job, rhazes_darkk!

Second place, Bigchief37 (5-2, 3 by 21+) wins a points differential tie-breaker over third place, Luxuriousdusti with the exact same record.

Kjhawkey finished 4th, also with a 5-2 record but I managed to keep most of those wins close. He won once by 21+, the Super Bowl being the only one. mr_punisher is 5th with a 4-3 record but all 4 of those wins he won by 21+ to edge out three more players who all finished 4-3.

Congrats to our winners! Thanks again to everyone for playing. As I said in the email last week, I really enjoyed this format and I hope you guys did too. We’ll look to do more of these multi-week, bigger group events next season. Without further adieu, here are the weekly results from Super Bowl and final overall results from the inaugural NFL Playoffs Challenge:

Regardless of what you think about Richard Sherman . . . (it seems everyone is commenting on Richard Sherman today in a free-for-all for hits and retweets #RichardSherman #ErinAndrews #MichaelCrabtree #LegionOfBoom #trolling #justkidding #apologies) . . . those were two excellent games yesterday. Really lived up to the word “Championship” in Conference Championships.

Now we are down to two teams set to compete for the Super Bowl in two weeks – Denver Broncos versus Seattle Seahawks! Hey, that is pretty much what the majority predicted way back in August and September. That never happens, so you could almost consider it unexpected two number one seeds advance to the big game.

I received marketing emails from a lot of daily fantasy sports websites last week hailing the Conference Championships mark the end of fantasy football for the season. Say what? We are open for business. Yes, there is just one game or two teams to form the player pool for your draft, but it is the biggest game of the year. We couldn’t let the Super Bowl go by and not play Fantasy Throwdown.

Lineup options are reduced, and the Block is off the table for Super Bowl challenges, but otherwise, get in there and do a draft against a friend. If you haven’t played Throwdown yet, this is a nice way to get your feet wet and try it out. It doesn’t have to be for money. Simply play for free if you prefer.

On to the business at hand, it was week three of our NFL Playoffs Challenge, with just one game to go for the Super Bowl (worth double points) to decide our inaugural NFL Playoffs Challenge Champion. Plus there is a weekly prize for this past week and Super Bowl week.

Tim, member tttimmyg, had another very good week as Throwdown1, while I went a bit overboard on the LeGarrette Blount Kool-Aid, and it cost me playing as Throwdown2. Tim went 16-6 in his challenges, while I was a measly 10-12. I’d like to blame my trip to Las Vegas last week, but I know it was too much Blount, Frank Gore, New England Patriots Defense and not enough Demaryius Thomas, Peyton Manning and Marshawn Lynch.

Five of our players went 2-0 this week. Three of them won both of their games by 21 or more points. That means it comes down to a tie-breaker to decide our weekly winner. And the winner is . . . atcdav! His two wins combined for an almost 104 point margin of victory to help him win the $50 weekly prize. Our other 2-0 players were jeffNFL, Luxuriousdusti, Bigchief37 and rhazes_darkk. r_d went 2-0 and won the $50 last week, so he is on a big time roll.

r_d is now alone in 1st place overall with a 5-1 record and 1.5 points up on Bigchief37 and Luxuriousdusti. mr_punisher shared 1st place with r_d after last week, and held the tie-breaker, but dropped down to 5th place after going 0-2. Kjhawkey is in 4th place, while atcdav moved way up with his big week and is now in a tie for 5th.

I think the most shocking ranking for me is Wilforkisland, way down now by himself in last place and 0-6 in the competition. Wilfork is our Turkey Day Challenge winner, Top 10 on the Leaderboard and holds a 3-2 record over my own “Mike” account this season since Week 9. The playoffs just aren’t going the way he expected or wanted, I suppose, as of yesterday especially since he is a Pats fan.

One game to go. This game is worth double points in our competition. Also, remember you’ll earn bonus points for drafting the player named the Super Bowl MVP, assuming it isn’t Richard Sherman or other defensive player.

Super Bowl MVP bonus points are calculated from every week of this contest, so if the MVP is Peyton Manning and you drafted Peyton in every NFL Playoffs Challenge match all the way from Divisional Playoffs (Broncos and Seahawks didn’t play Wild-Card Weekend), you’ll get the maximum bonus of 0.5 per game, or 3 points total (5 Throwdown games, plus double for Super Bowl). That could make a big difference in our final overall standings.

For clarity, the Super Bowl MVP bonus points will not be used to determine the weekly winner for Super Bowl week, just as they haven’t been used to determine the weekly winner so far.

No Block in these Super Bowl challenges. The lineup is:

1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF

Games will be added middle of this week. We have two weeks to finish, so not an urgency to get them done this week. Remember, even if you are out of the running for Top 5 overall, try to win that weekly prize. Thanks again for playing, and good luck!

Round 2 – Divisional Playoffs – of our NFL Playoffs Challenge is in the books. We are at the halfway point and this is still a wide open competition for who is going to claim each of the coveted Top 5 money spots, including number one overall after the Super Bowl.

This was a very good week for the “home” side. Not that we (Throwdown) win anything as players are trying to earn points in this competition relative to one another. Throwdown1, this week manned by my “ringer”, Tim Grinstead or better known as member tttimmyg and writer of the Three Keys to Victory column all season, went 15-7. I focussed on the Throwdown2 account this week, and my record was 18-4.

You can guess what went right for both of us. We didn’t discuss strategy going in, as I just asked Tim to do the QB-Flex lineups, but apparently we each independently loved LeGarrette Blount this week and grabbed him whenever we could. Getting the first pick was big this week too, assuming it was used on Marshawn Lynch. Keenan Allen looked nothing like a rookie and scored the best at WR with his two scores.

The quarterbacks were all huddled together and none really stood out, except Tom Brady in a negative way about 10 points behind the other five starters. Jimmy Graham was shut down. I opted for Julius Thomas first at TE, but if I didn’t get him then I still fell for the name recognition of Graham a few times. Stellar season but bumbled it at the end for fantasy players with a poor Week 15, and mostly invisible playoffs.

Even with only a combined 11 losses in 44 games for Throwdown1 and Throwdown2, two of our players still managed to win both of their games this week. rhazes_darkk and Kjhawkey each went 2-0. Nicely done gentlemen. Adding to this accomplishment, rhazes_darkk won both of his games by 21+ points for the 0.5 point bonus in the standings, and he wins the weekly prize of $50 for this week.

r_d was clearly high on the Blount train. I liked Blount a lot, but waited expecting to get him later in most challenges, and I’m guessing Tim was the same. r_d took Blount in the 3rd round of his Throwdown2 draft. It paid off for him big time.

r_d pulls into a first place overall tie with mr_punisher, who went 1-1 for the week. mr_p holds the tie-breaker right now though, given his huge margin of victory in his DP win vs. Throwdown2. He won by a 109 points! Yes, I did field a lineup as bad as that sounds. He grabbed Lynch first overall, Blount in the 5th, Marques Colston, Anquan Boldin. I had Brady, Graham. It was a massacre. Definitely the largest margin of victory this week in the whole contest.

Kjhawkey is in third overall. Last week’s top player, raptors, falls to fourth. Then we have a logjam at the next six spots, all 2-2 and just half a point separating them.

One more quick props out to Fantasytaz, who was the only player who drafted LaVon Brazill in all of Fantasy Throwdown this week, not just our NFL Playoffs Challenge. Rewarded for his bold call with 2 touchdowns.

Okay, lets get to the weekly standings for Divisional Playoffs, followed by updated overall standings.

Divisional Playoffs Standings

W

L

W by 21+

Pts

Dif

1. rhazes_darkk

2

0

2

5.0

63.5

2. Kjhawkey

2

0

0

4.0

22.0

3. mr_punisher

1

1

1

2.5

80.4

4. awilde27

1

1

1

2.5

31.8

5. Bigchief37

1

1

1

2.5

-14.2

6. Scott Kuff

1

1

0

2.0

-3.7

7. NiteHawk55

1

1

0

2.0

-31.8

8. Doclate

1

1

0

2.0

-40.8

9. BeastModeCV

1

1

0

2.0

-44.8

10. Fantasytaz

0

2

0

0.0

-4.3

11. eddieprobro

0

2

0

0.0

-41.3

12. atcdav

0

2

0

0.0

-68.8

13. Airbus79

0

2

0

0.0

-78.0

14. j0eo1s

0

2

0

0.0

-80.9

15. spridlewv

0

2

0

0.0

-81.6

16. raptors

0

2

0

0.0

-86.2

17. jeffNFL

0

2

0

0.0

-88.2

18. Haysie

0

2

0

0.0

-92.1

19. ffrittle

0

2

0

0.0

-94.7

20. Wilforkisland

0

2

0

0.0

-97.7

21. Luxuriousdusti

0

2

0

0.0

-113.9

22. robmcangus

0

2

0

0.0

-118.2

Overall Standings

W

L

W by 21+

Pts

Dif

1. mr_punisher

3

1

3

7.5

171.2

2. rhazes_darkk

3

1

3

7.5

95.4

3. Kjhawkey

3

1

0

6.0

3.1

4. raptors

2

2

2

5.0

46.7

5. awilde27

2

2

1

4.5

31.0

6. spridlewv

2

2

1

4.5

-8.5

7. Bigchief37

2

2

1

4.5

-27.9

8. NiteHawk55

2

2

0

4.0

-27.8

9. BeastModeCV

2

2

0

4.0

-51.6

10. Luxuriousdusti

2

2

0

4.0

-91.6

11. eddieprobro

1

3

1

2.5

-21.9

12. atcdav

1

3

1

2.5

-39.3

13. Haysie

1

3

1

2.5

-49.1

14. Scott Kuff

1

3

0

2.0

-48.9

15. Airbus79

1

3

0

2.0

-88.0

16. j0eo1s

1

3

0

2.0

-100.8

17. jeffNFL

1

3

0

2.0

-103.4

18. ffrittle

1

3

0

2.0

-112.8

19. Doclate

1

3

0

2.0

-134.5

20. Fantasytaz

0

4

0

0.0

-55.8

21. Wilforkisland

0

4

0

0.0

-141.5

22. robmcangus

0

4

0

0.0

-239.7

Conference Championships

Conference Championships up next! Each person is due for another two games this week, but keep in mind the player pool is cut down to two-thirds its normal size because there are only two games on the schedule. When you accept your challenge, you only need to decide if you want the first pick in the draft, or the second plus third picks in the draft.

The lineups for this week are:

1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 O, 0 K, 1 DEF, 1 Block (Flex RB/WR/TE)

vs. Throwdown1, and:

1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF, 1 Block (no Flex)

vs. Throwdown2.

Games will be added shortly. Keep fighting to the end, because you can make up ground quickly in this competition. Same points are awarded this week as the last two weeks. Points are double for the Super Bowl, and there are still bonus points for how many times you drafted the eventual Super Bowl MVP, which we won’t know until the end of the big game on February 2nd. Good luck!

We kicked off a new format special event for the NFL Playoffs, and everyone who took the plunge and signed up appears to be very into it given the quick pace at which we got 44 challenges drafted last week. It is called the NFL Playoffs Challenge, and is played from Wild-Card Weekend through the Super Bowl, with each participant playing two games of Fantasy Throwdown per week against a representative from FT (most likely, me).

The more you win, and win big, the more points you score in the standings to rise up the ranks of the competition. We are excited to offer this event, because it is one method by which we can scale Fantasy Throwdown to allow more people to play in a combined competition than the leagues or tournaments we’ve run throughout the year.

Check the rules for details about the competition, but the basics are we had 22 entrants, they earn 2 points per win plus an extra half point if they win by 21 or more points. The first tie-breaker is points differential. The overall winner after the Super Bowl wins $300, and the Top 5 earn a prize. Plus there is a weekly $50 prize.

From what I would consider a somewhat bad drafting week – I drafted Jamaal Charles at every opportunity, then Jimmy Graham, plus I was high on Marques Colston, and had very few drafts with Alex Smith, Andrew Luck or T.Y. Hilton – the Throwdown1 account went 8-14. No surprise there. However the Throwdown2 account somehow produced a record of 15-7 for a combined record of just over .500.

As for our competitors, only four players went 2-0 for Wild-Card Weekend. Two of those four earned both blowout bonuses for winning by 21 plus fantasy points, so the weekly prize of $50 came down to the tie-breaker and was awarded to raptors, just edging out mr_punisher.

I have to give special recognition to member Haysie. Not only because it was his first ever game of Fantasy Throwdown, but because he recorded the biggest lopsided victory of the week. He won vs. Throwdown1 by 104.4! Damn! Luck to Hilton! Where was that Chiefs defense? The closest game of the week, Throwdown1 wins by 0.8 points over Wilforkisland.

Below are the weekly and overall standings after one week.

W

L

W by 21+

Pts

Dif

1. raptors

2

0

2

5.0

132.9

2. mr_punisher

2

0

2

5.0

90.8

3. spridlewv

2

0

1

4.5

73.1

4. Luxuriousdusti

2

0

0

4.0

22.3

5. Haysie

1

1

1

2.5

43.0

6. rhazes_darkk

1

1

1

2.5

32.0

7. atcdav

1

1

1

2.5

29.5

8. eddieprobro

1

1

1

2.5

19.4

9. NiteHawk55

1

1

0

2.0

4.0

10. awilde27

1

1

0

2.0

-0.8

11. BeastModeCV

1

1

0

2.0

-6.8

12. Airbus79

1

1

0

2.0

-10.0

13. Bigchief37

1

1

0

2.0

-13.7

14. jeffNFL

1

1

0

2.0

-15.2

15. ffrittle

1

1

0

2.0

-18.1

16. Kjhawkey

1

1

0

2.0

-18.9

17. j0eo1s

1

1

0

2.0

-19.9

18. Wilforkisland

0

2

0

0.0

-43.8

19. Scott Kuff

0

2

0

0.0

-45.2

20. Fantasytaz

0

2

0

0.0

-51.5

21. Doclate

0

2

0

0.0

-93.7

22. robmcangus

0

2

0

0.0

-121.5

Its still early, because there are two more games to be played for each of Divisional Playoffs and Conference Championships, plus one for Super Bowl worth double points, so everyone is still in it, and don’t forget there is a weekly prize up for grabs every week.

The game results from Wild-Card Weekend are included below. The Divisional round games will go in later today so we can get rolling with those. The lineups are similar to last week with one challenge a QB Flex option, and the other a Flex RB/WR/TE.

Thanks to everyone who is playing in the NFL Playoffs Challenge, and good luck the rest of the way!

Weeks 16 and 17 of the NFL season does not need to signify the end of fantasy football for another year! Instead, it highlights the fact that Fantasy Throwdown keeps on rolling right through the NFL Playoffs including the Super Bowl!

We are already hearing non-stop playoff scenario talk heading into the final weeks of the regular season, but that is okay, because . . .

Once the playoff schedule is known after the conclusion of Week 17, each contestant receives two official Fantasy Throwdown challenges marked “PC” (Playoffs Challenge) for Wild-Card Weekend.

Contestants need to accept the challenges and finish their drafts against a representative from Fantasy Throwdown the week leading up to the Wild-Card Weekend games.

Once results are in after the last game on Sunday, points are awarded for wins, and standings are tabulated for the Playoffs Challenge.

Contestants earn 2 points for a win, plus a half point bonus if they win by 21 or more points. There is potential for an additional half point bonus awarded for drafting the eventual Super Bowl MVP.

All contestants each receive another two Fantasy Throwdown challenges for Divisional Playoffs, and two for Conference Championships. Points are awarded and standings updated each week.

All contestants each receive one Fantasy Throwdown challenge for Super Bowl. All available points are doubled for Super Bowl (4 points for a win, 1 point for a win by 21+, 1 point for drafting the Super Bowl MVP).

Final overall standings after the conclusion of the Super Bowl determine our overall contest winners. There is also a weekly prize for the best single week performance (all games played for one entry) after each round of the playoffs.

This contest is capped at a maximum of 50 entries. Contestants can purchase multiple entries to help increase their chances of winning.

Important Points

Contest Entry Deadline

Wild-Card Weekend games start Saturday January 4th. The deadline to join the NFL Playoffs Challenge is Friday January 3rd at 6:00pm Eastern, to help ensure drafts are finished prior to opening kickoff of the first playoff game.

Incomplete Drafts

If a contestant fails to accept and sufficiently complete their draft (at least 7 picks made) prior to Friday at 6:00pm Eastern of that week’s games, then Fantasy Throwdown cannot guarantee the draft will be finished before opening kickoff of that playoff week. An incomplete draft will expire, and no points awarded to the contestant for that match.

Standings Tie-breakers

In the event contestants are tied in the standings based on points earned, the first tie-breaker is overall point differential. The second tie-breaker is point differential for the Super Bowl.

Multiple Entries

Contestants can purchase multiple entries. These will be marked PC1 (first entry), PC2, (second entry), PC3 (third), etc., etc. Contestants cannot combine PC1 results from one week with PC2 results from another week, for example. Each entry must be tracked separately.

I hope you decide to join us in this contest to wrap up a great season of fantasy football at Fantasy Throwdown. Sign up early so you don’t miss out. Good luck!